One of the most interesting disciples that I have studied is Matthew or "The Tax Collector" as he is known. Just like the other twelve, Matthew will also prove that God can use anybody that He chooses to. God at times picks people that we are not sure He should pick. When God puts together a team sometimes He puts people on the team that we are not real adjusted to and He has done that with the twelve. All of them have had something unique about them but unlike the fishing brothers and the unknowns and even Judas, Matthew had something that was totally unique about him. He had a label that the others did not have and his label was "Tax Collector". That was an ouch type of label when you lived in that culture during that time. That was not what you wanted to be known as. He is not talked about in most of the scriptures. Even in the book of Acts when they rally around who is left and who stayed faithful to Christ, Matthew is listed there as one who takes the Gospel and continues on following Jesus. Matthew is a different kind of guy. Matthew has some issues. Some of the scholars tell us that being a tax collector, living in that type of life, doing that type of work in this time meant that you were pretty much the low life of society. A lot of the historians title all of the disciples as something different. Peter was "The Magnificent One", Thaddeus was "The Little One", and James and John were "The Sons of Thunder", but when you study Matthew it is interesting that they call him "The Lost Disciple". He was the lost one out of the bunch. He was the one that out of all of them, even Judas, should not have made the cut.
I want us to look in the book of Matthew. It is his self entitled gospel. Look at chapter nine and we will look at how Matthew was called and this encounter that Jesus has with Matthew. One of the purposes that Jesus had was to fulfill the will of the Father and redeem mankind back from the fall, back from sin and to give man hope through salvation that was found in the cross. Another purpose that Jesus had was that he gathered people around him and he was constantly having conversation with people from one city to another and clearing up who God was. During that time they had heard a lot of things about God that were not true. The love of God and the truth of God and the passion of the kingdom have been lost a lot of times through rules and regulations and people were not able to follow the true meaning because the water had been muddied. Jesus was about defining truth and giving people the real picture of truth. There was even one time that Jesus told a group of people that had gathered around Him that He was the truth, the way, the light. He made mention too many people that He was the light of the world and those that sit in darkness would find life if they would look to Him. A lot of times we may get an impression about a person and after meeting that person we discover they are not anything like someone else said they were. Have you ever met someone and got to know them and someone else had a bad read on them or had a bad experience on them and you met them with your guard up a little, but as you get to know them, you think, wow, you are near as bad as they said you were.
Jesus told people that the things they have been told about God are not as bad as they have told you. He looked at the disciples and said if you want to see the Father -- here He is. I am Him. He went about touching people’s lives that way and one of those lives He touched was Matthew the tax collector. In Matthew 9:9, it says, "As Jesus was going down the road, He saw Matthew sitting at his tax collection booth." Matthew lived in Capernaum. It was a very busy city and it had a very busy crossroad and most of the commerce in Galilee would head down that direction. The job of tax collector was horribly disliked by his Jewish country men. They didn’t act right, they took advantage of people, worked on Sundays and they would deal with the people that were Gentiles that you were not suppose to have anything to do with. There were even times that because of business they would have lunches, breakfasts and coffee with those that were not welcome in the Synagogue during that time.
The tax collector was the low life of a Jewish person. That was the last job you would want because the people were already over taxed and the way the tax collector made his living was off the commission of padding the taxes. When they would charge taxes to people they would put a little percentage on it and they would add a little bit. They could add 5% or 10% or if they didn’t like you then you were going to pay 50% and you were not going to get anything done because the tax collector worked for the Romans. If he did not like you then the Roman boot would come visit you. The children of Israel, the Jewish people, did not want anybody on their land other than the promised of Abraham so the Romans were not welcomed, so if you worked with the enemy then you were considered a traitor and someone that was selling out your own birth right.
One of the worse things about being a tax collector was that at the end of the day you were not welcomed in the synagogue, in fellowship with the sons of Israel and you were considered an outcast of the lost sheep of Israel. When they would see a tax collector they would say that is one of the lost sheep. They have lost their way and they have munched themselves into a lucrative career on the backs of their own people and away from God and they are no longer welcome in His presence. All of the Rabbi would teach their disciples not to have anything to do with that tax collector bunch. Don’t go eat with them or hang out with them. Let them pay for the life they have chosen.
That is why it is so interesting that Jesus picked Matthew and probably the disciples would not have wanted a tax collector to fill a spot. They were saving that for someone else who was smart or who could get them into the religious flow of things. Jesus doesn’t do that. He has a conversation with Matthew. Matthew has learned to deal with life the way it has come his way. He has lived as a lost one. He has made his money, stayed busy, stayed to himself, hung out with a few other sinner friends and a few that were outcast and were not welcome around the religious circle. They have survived together.
Let’s look at how Jesus selects him in Matthew, chapter nine. We see that one day he is sitting at his tax collecting booth and it is just another day, another dollar, just trying to make ends meet and live above the poverty level and make a living for his family. He realizes that there is talk about a new Rabbi. He has been hearing about a Rabbi that has been doing miracles and helping those that no one else wants to help and he is in his area. He sees people around the commerce table of taxation and he hears bits and pieces about Jesus and he probably thinks to himself that this is just more of the same. It is just another religious leader come to manipulate the people and to dictate to these poor pitiful people and it is going to cut into my profit because he is probably here for income also. That is the way he thinks. He is a tax collector. It tells us that as Jesus comes down the road that He sees Matthew sitting at the booth. As Matthew is making one dollar after another dollar, and waiting on one person after another he looks up and this Jesus is standing next to him.
Jesus the Son of God, the creator of the world, has wondered over off the beaten path to where the tax collector booth was located. He is there by the booth and Matthew sees Jesus and their eyes meet. Jesus sees something beyond the tax collector booth because Jesus always sees something beyond what other people see. He sees potential, hope and a future in your life that you don’t even see yourself. Matthew would have never thought that he would be one that would get the nod, the invitation, but the Bible says that as their eyes meet; Jesus says the strangest thing that He ever says to Matthew. He looks at Matthew and says come be my disciple. Jesus looks at Matthew, the low life, the outcast of Israel, the lost one and says I want you to come and I want you to be my disciple.
You can imagine what the other disciples are thinking. There is no way that Jesus is inviting him to come with us. Remember what a disciple is? A disciple not only wants to know what you know, they not only want to learn what the teacher learns, but they want to be the teacher. Jesus invites Matthew the tax collector, the lost one and says I want you to come and be my disciple. I want you to go where I go and learn the things I am learning and I am going to teach you so that when I am gone you will carry on the truth of God’s love. He invites him to come and follow Him. You can imagine as Matthew thinks, "Did you hear what He just said to me?" "Are you talking to me?" I don’t think you are talking to me." Jesus says, "Come and follow me. I want you to be my disciple."
Before you know it Matthew gets up from this lucrative career where dozens of people would like to have his job and walks away from that table and he realizes he will never go back to that table again. He cannot return because somebody is waiting in line to get that spot. The Bible tells us that Matthew follows Jesus. The lost one, the one that shouldn’t make; it accepts the invitation and follows the Son of God. A tax collector becomes a disciple and two thousand years later we are reading a Gospel written by him.
That is not all the story. I hung out with some notorious sinners before I came to Christ. I still know some notorious sinners. Notorious for their sin. Not all people that are lost are miserable today. There is a time in sin when we say this is not too bad, but we know that eventually it will run out, and the clock will tick to a point of desperation and pain and hurt to other people.
Jesus shows up and selects Matthew. Matthew selects to go with this group. It is so amazing because it is so unlike the group he ran with. They show up at Matthew’s house that night and they are having a party. Jesus is in that room just hanging out. Six hours into this new life and Matthew has brought together some of his messed up buddies into contact with Jesus.
It stirs up the boiling pot of jealousy in the religious establishment. Verse eleven says, "Why does your teacher eat with such scum, they asked the disciples?" It is interesting that they did not ask Jesus, but He heard it. Jesus hears everything you say when you talk about somebody. He is listening in. The Pharisees look at this whole scenario and say what is wrong with this picture? Jesus claims to be the Son of God, Jesus claims to know truth, Jesus claims to do miracles and that is all OK, but we cannot take this whole idea that He is sharing the message of truth with this bunch of no good, low life, dirt. Why does He have to bring the message here? We teach our disciples that you do not eat with, visit with or know this group and now He brings His disciples here. It makes us look bad. Jesus’ love for the lost shines the light of self righteousness on the other teachers and they cannot stand it. Jesus hears them saying this and replies, "Healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people do. Now, go learn the meaning of this scripture. I want you to be merciful. I don’t want your sacrifices, for I have come to call sinners and not those who think they are already good enough."
What an amazing thing. Matthew gets up one morning just like any other morning and he thinks to himself, another day, another dollar, but somewhere in the middle of the day he has an encounter with the Son of God and he makes the decision to go and follow Him. In twenty four hours he is freed, he is found and now he is forgiven. That evening he sits with some of the guys he has been running with and some of the ladies and he looks at them and says I will not be back at Levi’s table tomorrow. I am going to follow Jesus. He watches as Jesus comes into contact with people that are hurting, that are lost and addicted to everything you can imagine, that have failed in every way you can fail, and have been outcasts of society and are the lost ones of Israel. Can you imagine what went through his head as Matthew lies down at night in the lateness of the hour? How did this ever happen? I am following Jesus and this is hard to believe. Tomorrow morning I will no longer rip off people, harass people and assault them. I am going to go with Jesus and help people. There is nothing in the world that would compare to this.
The Bible tells us that Matthew follows Jesus for two and one half years and then there is a cross and an empty tomb and a day when Matthew stands with some of the other disciples at the ascension and Jesus says go and make disciples. Matthew makes the decision that he will go and he will make disciples and he will do it to the ones that turned their nose up to him and that he abused for a lot of his life. He goes to the people in that region and loves and reaches out to the Jewish man and woman. He loves his countrymen for twenty five years and he follows groups of them to different places. He ends up in Ethiopia and at an old age he is taken out, tied to a stake and burned alive because he left the table of his past to follow Jesus Christ. He dies for Jesus. What an amazing story.
God still loves lost people today. He is not here to harass them and the Bible is not a book to assault people that are outside of the flow and not in the church. We are not called to harass people but to love them and tell them they matter to God. Jesus said He had come to the purpose of that which was lost. Most people that wake up lost this morning don’t do it on purpose. They have just gotten preoccupied with life. They have been misinformed about Jesus.
It is good to know that if you are lost today and without God that He passionately loves you and Jesus died for you. He loves you just where you are and He loves you enough not to leave you where you are now. What an amazing thought. Such were some of us. Don’t forget that you were lost one time, but Jesus washed us and set us free. Love lost people.
